meditatio at the water's edge

Here are some of my reflections on mission spurred on by George Hunsberger at the NewForm conference...

On a Mission
I was in a meeting recently where someone remarked that they were so tired of rewording mission statements that they were ready to be done with mission statements altogether. I sympathize with the frustration. Even being the ‘word-nazi’ that I am accused of being, mission statements, purpose statements, vision statements, and the like seem pretty irrelevant if they are as ignored as they typically are. After rewriting them enough times, you ask, “What’s the point?”

More important than having a mission statement is having the sense that you are on a mission—that you are participating in something bigger than yourself and working for a purpose that is good and right and lasting. Mission statements can be very helpful in bringing clarity about our quest—our assignment, our mission—but without a sense that we are actually on a mission (God’s mission in particular), statements are about that mission are meaningless.

So our real challenge is to start seeing ourselves as a people on a mission--and that is to say that we are "a body of people sent" (that was the title and subject of George's presentation). That mission begins by God’s initiative, and therefore it is God’s mission and we are invited to join up with it. We do not have the prerogative of making one up for ourselves. We can certainly talk about the specific ways we will live in and from that mission (mission statements will reflect this), but the mission has already been given. We have already been sent.

The job of leaders is to remind us that we are a sent people—a people on a mission. Being on this mission involves three primary actions. First, it involves representation—simply living as a faithful people. We are sent to ‘colonize’ (see Phil 3:20-21) our neighborhoods and workplaces and schools by simply being ‘heaven-ized people’ together in those places. We are to be the present representatives of what life-with-God-as-king looks like.

Second, being on this mission involves participation—active cooperation with what God is doing in the world. We are not just to talk about what should be; we are to be actively engaging in what God wants done. We look where there is injustice, violence, destruction, and suffering, and we work to bring justice, peace, healing, and wholeness. Being on this mission means that we are pulled forward by God’s desire for the healing of our broken world.

Third, being on this mission involves invitation—calling people to receive and enter into the rule and reign of God. We are not calling people to make travel plans for the afterlife—we are calling people to align themselves with God’s kingdom, and thereby enter into the life that is truly life. We do this as our lives together (representation) and our engagement with the world around us in the reality of the kingdom of God (participation) present a tangible and attractive option to the people around us.